HELP THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES. This is the healthful principle on which the Home Missionary Society affords aid to the many feeble churches and destitute places in our widely-extended country. Its utility, apparent upon the least reflection, is delightfully exhibited in the report of our agent in Michigan Territory, who, in the short space of six weeks, obtained pledges and contributions amounting to more than $3000. Surely an example so animating to the friends of the cause of Home Missions, cannot fail to excite the churches in the older states to increased liberality, while it assures them that those whom they help, are so willing to help themselves. REPORT OF THE HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW-HAVEN COUNTY. This Society has been organized only three years, and has contributed more than $1600. This sum is probably more than has been given in other places, and shows the utility of system and union. The Commttiee say in their Report The whole amount contributed by all the parishes, since our organization, will make an average of about 550 dollars a year. And there are probably in all the churches, embraced by this Society, 3000 members; and probably not less than one third as many-or one thousand-more, who are in the habit of contributing to our various benevolent objects; making the number of 4000 persons within our limits, who may be expected to contribute to this object. Now if we divide the whole sum of 550 dollars among these 4000 contributors, we have an average of less than 14 cents a year for each individual. We would here pause long enough for every man, woman, and child, that can understand it, to get this fact fully into the mind, and to fasten it there. Less than 14 cents a year for each individual, we have made the measure of our ability to supply our destitute and desolate settlements with the administrations of the Gospel, and to stay that tide of demoralizing influence from Popery, and infidelity, and irreligion of every name, that threatens the ruin of our country. Less than 14 cents a year, from the lovers of their country and the disciples of Christ, when the best interests of our country are in jeopardy. Let us look at the same thing under another aspect. Fourteen cents a year is but little more than one cent a month. Our churches are in the habit of uniting in the Monthly Concert for prayer. We go up to our respective places of supplication, upon the first Monday evening of every month, and unite with the multitudes of every Christian land and name, praying that the kingdom of God may come. In our supplications we forget not our beloved country. For who that loves his country can forget her, in this day of her threatened ruin. And what report shall your Committee have occasion to make for the year to come? We find again from official reports, that there have been added about 850 members to our churches, mostly within the past year. Divide the whole sum reported by our Treasurer among these young disciples of the Saviour; and we find that an offering of 65 cents a year from each of them would be quite sufficient to raise the sum. Yes, only 5 or 6 cents at each monthly concert for prayer, from each of those who in the recent visitations of God's Spirit have graciously been called into his kingdom, and adopted as his sons and daughters, and made heirs of an immortal inheritance, would make the full amount yearly of all that our Treasurer has been able to report. And what shall be our re port for the coming year? What may we not expect from those who, by the grace of God, have been admitted to fellowship with the Saviour, in this day of light and of benevolent enterprise, in this dawn of inillenial glory. Let then these young disciples of Christ be made distinctly acquainted with the nature, and deeply impressed with the importance of our object, and admitted at once, to a participation of our labours and our joys. And let all who love the Lord Jesus Christ and his cause, come up to the enterprise, and engage in it with a zeal in any degree proportioned to its importance, and what, by the blessing of God, shall be our Treasurer's next report; and what our grateful and pleasing reflections, when in retrospect we view another year. The Committee in conclusion say: Let each of our churches engage and make this pledge, that an amount equal to 50 cents a year from each of its members The principal objection to this is, that it seems to relieve the conscience from the pressure of obligation to do more-to do all that the ability of the individual and the exigencies of the cause of Christ demand. Care must be taken lest in making easy to do good we lower the standard. From Rev. A. Gardner, Big Hollow, Since my last report, the Lord has seen fit, in his righteous providence, to deprive us of a house of public worship. It was consumed to ashes on the first Sabbath in February, between the hours of 8 and 10 in the morning. As some of the congregation were approaching the house for worship, they beheld it enveloped in flames! Others came in time to behold only its ashes! A more solemn Sabbath I never witnessed. The people assembled in the largest school-house in the place, which was crowded. Had there been one dead in each family in the congregation, and had the people assembled to listen to a sermon preached on such an occasion, I can hardly conceive that they would have been more deeply affected. I could not satisfy myself to think of preaching the sermon I had written for that day. I discoursed on 2 Pet. iii. 11. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." The providence of God often explains and enforces portions of his word. On Wednesday of the week on which this trying event occurred, the Society met to take into consideration the propriety of making efforts to build another house. It was unanimously resolved, that we pro, ceed without delay to erect another house for God, MISCELLANEOUS. MISSIONARY SELF-DENIAL AND GRATITUDE. The following facts respect a Missionary in the state of Ohio: All that he has received, or is to receive from the people among whom he labours, including fifty dollars advanced by the A. H. M. S., for his first year's labour, will amount to about three hundred and twenty dollars. the current year. This he did because he felt it to be a privilege, in view of the blessing of God upon his business, to sustain the whole support of one of the most useful agents of the Society in the western states. Again. Two brethren met the Editor in the street, since his return from the west, and requested the privilege of sustain, sionary to be sent to some new field in the west or south, Their request will be complied with; and we trust they will soon be preaching the gospel," by proxy," in some distant portion of the United States. His situation has been less expensive than that of many of his brethren; him. self and family have been blessed with un-ing, jointly, the whole support of a Misinterrupted health; they live in a log cabin with one room; have one bed and one pallet; have neither bureau nor bookcase; yet theirs is the abode of plenty, because it is of contentment. There they have evidence that they are useful, and know that they are happy. In these circumstances, as a thank-offering to the Giver of all good, and as an expression of gratitude for the encouragement received from the A. H. M. S., the Missionary feels a pleasure in relinquishing fifty dollars of the amount pledged in his commission, It is cheering to record examples so indicative of an increase of interest, on the part of individuals best acquainted with the principles of the A. H. M. S., and the manner of its operations, May they be multiplied a hundred fold. The wants of the Society were never more pressing, and its prospects of usefulness never more encouraging, Are there not many friends of the cause who will take pleasure in imitating the above examples? And may we not hope, nay, confidently expect, that the receipts of the coming year will make it manifest? New-Providence, N. J., Mon. Con. coll., 12.25; coll. on Sabbath, per Rev. U. Bowery Ch., S. E. & R. C. Morse, 18 95 -482-75 20 00 250 00 Central Ch., sundry subscriptions, per 85 37 30 00 Pearl-st. Ch., Fem. Praying Soc., per Mrs. 15.50 Rutgers-st. Ch., coll., 10 00 South Dutch Ch., S. Cobb, 10 00 Spring-st. Ch., subs, per R. I. Thorne, 86 56 9 00 W. W. Jackson, 3; Mrs. Montgomery, 5; a Stranger, left at the Office, 1, Orange, N. J., Fem. Benev. Soc., 2nd Ch., to 100 00 131 50 3d Ch., Mrs. Carswell, 20; R. W. Davenport, 10; Mrs. Bailey, 5; Male Bible Class, 1.13, 36 13 100; Cullen Brown, L. D., 100; D. G. Monroe, Oliver Johnson, L. D., 100; H. Pontiac, Johnson Niles, of Troy, L. D., Westfield, N. J., subscription per 8. Dow- Williamson, N. Y., contribution, per Rev. J. 1100 75 121 37 107 00 30 44 15.00 51 55 5. 00 80 00 37 50 101 50 $5149 69 Skaneateles, N. Y., Mon. Con. coll., per Quincy, Ill., Willard Keyes 5; Henry R. Shoal Creek, Ill., Fem. Char. Soc., by Rev. 240 00 1 75 8. W. Brace, 11 00 K. TAYLOR, Treasurer. Sums acknowledged as received by Rev. M. P. Auburn, 1st Ch., E. Hills, 10, Rev. H. Mills 5; 10 50 37 32 Smithfield, Pa., Mon. Con. coll., Rev. Wm. 21 40 East Bethany, Ladies' Aux., 10 00 South Middletown, N. Y., Fem. Benev. Soc., Troy, N. Y., ist Presb. Ch., Mon. Con. coll., 20 68 69 34 Lyons, Ladies' Aux., 29.25; coll., 24, 53 25 Ogden, by Rev. A. Sedgwick. 15.50; by Mr. 200 00 Willey, 18, 33 50 30 00 Penfield Village, 768 Pittsford, Presb. Cong., 10 00 12 50 Western Reserve, D. M. S., per Rev. D. W. Lathrop, viz Rochester, E. Pomeroy, 6; J. Seymour, 25; L. Ward, 5; Benev. Assoc., 1st Ch., 90; Ladies' Aux., 76.24, Ann Arbor, Friend, 5; Do., 5; Do., 0.50, 10 50 Scipio, 2d Ch., per J. Iveson, Detroit, Maj. Benjamin F. Larned, U.S.A., L. D., 100; Shubael Conant, L. D., 100; AMERICAN PASTOR'S JOURNAL, OR, ORIGINAL SKETCHES OF REAL CHARACTERS, CONVERSATIONS, AND STRIKING FACTS, FURNISHED CHIEFLY BY CLERGYMEN. "THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD."(Rom. ii. 22.) [Furnished by a Clergyman.] This world cannot be a state of retribution. Even in the eye of man, rewards and punishments are not proportioned to the merit or demerit of individuals. The deathless mind, therefore, shrunk back with horror, and could not be reasoned into the belief, that God had created it to flutter here for so short a period, and then cease to exist. Infidelity could give him no rest. The scoffs of sceptics, and the sneers of Paine, could not destroy all his confidence in the Scriptures. He had also fallen into some of the common vices. He tried to drown his anxiety by the inebriating cup. He never was considered a drunkard; though for many years he used spirits freely, and would, occasionally, on public days, become in toxicated. At forty years of age, unable to disbelieve a future state, to calm his fears of coming wrath, and quiet his conscience in a course of sin, he adopted the notion that all will be saved. He reasoned thus, "God is infinite in goodness; therefore he cannot make a crea On a Sabbath in the month of March, after entering the sacred desk, I was informed that a parishioner was sick. It was in the northern section of our country, and an old man, who had stood the shock of four-score winters, was now trembling apparently on the borders of the grave. He thought he should die, and felt that he was unprepared. His refuge had failed him. His former hopes had vanished. He sent his request by the hand of a messenger, that he might be remembered, before the mercy seat, in the united prayers of the church. "Pray that I may recover, but pray especially for my soul." The agedindividual presenting this request lived about a mile distant from the church, and partly through infirmity, but especially in consequence of his lack of interest in religious things, he had been, for many years, only an occasional attendant. In his childhood he had been instructed in the first principles of religion, and had adopted a form of godli-ture to be for ever miserable." Like too ness. For several years, when he was first settled in life, he attended family worship by the aid of a prayer-book. Still he made no pretensions to a change of heart. He was a stranger to vital piety. "Will he always call upon God?" Ah, no. At length, even this became irksome, a yoke grievous to be borne, and was laid aside. Now, he threw off the restraints of religion, and was left to wander in the mazes of error. But conscience had not yet lost all its power. At times, he felt like Noah's dove: he had forsaken the ark, and cast off the God of his fathers," and could find no rest for the sole of his foot." He tried to disbelieve the Bible, and bury his anxiety about the future, in the dark and gloomy hope of annihilation. He wished, but could not believe, that the grave might be an eternal sleep. Man must be accountable. many, who embrace sentiments founded on their wishes, rather than on reason, or facts, or the Bible, he forgot that this mode of reasoning would exclude all suffering from this world, which is contrary to experience; and that it would utterly overthrow the security of happiness to any, by permitting the entrance of unholy beings into heaven, to disturb the bliss of God's obedient creatures. God is infinitely too good, to destroy the distinction between virtue and vice; and too just, to reward him, who serves him not, as him who serves him. He searched the Scriptures to support his creed. Forty years he had now rested upon it. by its fruit. His The tree was known He had no closet. family altar was thrown down. He seldom visited the sanctuary. He showed a bitter hostility to vital piety. His grandchildren attended the Sabbath School; but he was unwilling they should study the Scriptures in his presence. He had arrived at the downhill of life. His strength diminished, and he grew more peevish, and exhibited more and more an unchristian temper. Still he held fast his hope of heaven. In making pastoral visits, I frequently met him. We spent hours together conversing on the future condition of the righteous and the wicked. He appeared immovably fixed in his belief of universal salvation. But after reason and revelation had been successfully resisted, God laid on him the hand of affliction. He saw death approaching. His hope was to be tried. He knew he had not been born of the Spirit. He felt that the risk was tremendous. There was at least a peradventure that he might be mistaken. He became anxious. He sought the advice of friends. He asked their prayers. His anxiety increased; his pride yielded; and the old man, who had been forty years a Universalist, now sends his earnest request to the sanctuary, that if there is mercy in heaven for an aged sinner, it may be obtained in answer to the united supplications of God's people. I || hastened to see him the next morning. I was very cordially welcomed at his house by his daughter, a sister in the church, who had often wept in secret, and prayed for the conversion of her aged parents. As I entered the room, the sick man said with emotion, "I am glad, I am glad to see you." Having passed the usual compliment, I seated myself by the bedside. The old gentleman indeed appeared feeble; but it seemed rather the effect of age, and anxiety of mind, than any particular disease. He had abandoned all his former delusive hopes, and knew not what to do. He was driven from his anchorage, and had neither chart nor compass to guide his trackless way. Neither sun nor stars shone to light him into port. In a familiar manner, I endeavoured to lead him to the contemplation of his sins, rather than his danger; and to convince him of the need of a Saviour from sin, as well as from wrath. He listened with fixed attention; and freely expressed his own feelings. His wife, about the same age with himself, overheard all the conversation, but she appeared perfectly indifferent. I addressed my discourse to her, and soon found that she was reposing on the vain and impious plan of many: “If 1 am to be saved, I shall be: 1 can do nothing, but must wait God's time to give me repentance." I tried to present truth to her mind, so that she might see the fatal rock. I endeavoured to convince her, that her excuse was vain, as it did not release her from obligation; and impious, as it casts the blame of her impenitence on God. She was unaffected. Alas! how many souls have made shipwreck and sunk to eternal wo, waiting for God to do their duty. She had never adopted the notion, that all will be saved; but, for many years, had quieted her conscience by pleading God's sovereignty, and her dependence. After prayer, I left the house, reflecting on the deeply affecting scene which I had witnessed. It may be, thought I, that God is about to display both his goodness and his severity with this aged couple, and effect an entire change in their future prospects. Perhaps a line will soon be drawn between them that shall run parallel with eternity. Lord, what is man? How ineffectual is even thine own truth without thy Spirit! On my leaving him, the anxious invalid earnestly requested me to repeat my visits. I did, and preached repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. At our next interview, his views of sin were more clear and scriptural, but he had not yet submitted himself to God. For a number of days he continued in nearly the same state of mind, till, convinced of his lost and helpless condition, he cast himself, as a sinner, on the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. His mind became more tranquil. He looked upon his past life with penitence, and upon his former sentiments with abhorrence. Old things had passed away, and all things appeared new. He saw God in every thing; and was astonished at his forbearance towards him. He admired the power of the Saviour in effecting so great a change, and adored that grace which can show mercy to the chief of sinners. He now felt the deepest solicitude for |